A new study found that cannabis consumption is linked to an increased risk of head and neck cancer.
The study did not include detailed information on cannabis intake, but participants had to fit the criteria for cannabis use disorder. There has been conflicting evidence in the past on the link between cannabis use and head and neck cancer.
A comprehensive retrospective analysis of two decades’ worth of medical records finds a substantial correlation between cannabis use and the onset of head and neck cancer.
Two well-known risk factors are already present: alcohol and tobacco. Reliable Source for developing cancers of the head and neck, including cancers of the mouth and throat. However, previous studies on the effects of cannabis on different cancer types have yielded conflicting results.
Similar to tobacco, smoking is a common method of cannabis consumption. It is well known that smoking cannabis releases some of the same chemical components as tobacco smoke Trusted Source, which increases the risk of cancer by inflaming the mouth, throat, and lungs.
According to a recent study, cannabis users who satisfied the criteria for cannabis use disorder (CUD) were between 3.5 and 5 times more likely than non-CUD users to develop any type of head and neck cancer. The study was published on August 8 in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
Senior author of the study Niels Kokot, MD, a head and neck surgeon at Keck Medicine of USC, stated, “Our study is the first and the largest to show that there is this association.”
“In my opinion, this is a good place to start when determining the precise risk of cannabis use-related head and neck cancer. Although it establishes a correlation, Kokot told Healthline that “we definitely have more work to do in terms of truly defining what those risk levels are.”
Cannabis smokers have a five times increased risk of head and neck cancer
Over a 20-year period, Kokot and his colleagues used medical records from millions of patients at 64 different US healthcare organizations.
Approximately 4 million of the study’s patients were not diagnosed with CUD, compared to 116,076 who did.
The patients had no past history of malignancy of the head or neck. There were, nevertheless, certain demographic variations between the CUD-positive and -negative groups.
With an average age of 46, the CUD group was substantially younger than the other group, which had an average age of 60. Additionally, there were somewhat fewer women (44.5% versus 54.5%) among those with a CUD diagnosis.
Next, researchers looked into the two groups’ respective risks of acquiring site-specific malignancies as well as cancers of the head and neck.
The study included a variety of timeframes, including one year, five years, and any length of time between the onset of cancer and the diagnosis of CUD, in order to reinforce any associations that may have existed.
Patients with CUD had a 3.5–5 times higher risk of developing head and neck cancer, depending on the time period.
The type of throat cancer with the strongest individual correlation with CUD was laryngeal cancer, which came with a risk increase of more than eight times.
The cancer of the throat that affects the pharynx, called oropharyngeal cancer, increased by almost five times. These results are consistent with earlier research that looked at the risk of head and neck cancer and tobacco use Trusted Source.
Other cancers, including oral, salivary gland, and nasopharyngeal, were associated with a 2–3 times increased risk.
Use of cannabis; dosage unknown
Kokot noted that although the results were strong, the study had certain important limitations.
Only the diagnosis of CUD is recorded in hospital health records, not details on a patient’s frequency, dosage, or mode of administration of cannabis.
The authors also point out that alcohol and tobacco use are likely to be connected with CUD, which could be a complicating factor. Despite their best efforts to account for these factors, they observe that there “may remain differences in dosage” between individuals who received a CUD diagnosis and those who did not.
While acknowledging the study’s limitations, Stanford Medicine’s Head and Neck Cancer Research Director John B. Sunwoo, MD, told Healthline that it was a solid study. Sunwoo had no connection to the study.
“We do not know if the cannabis group smoked more because [the researchers] did not have information about tobacco and alcohol dosages,” Sunwoo stated to Healthline.
The frequency, potency, and mode of cannabis use are among the other information regarding cannabis use that is missing from the study because it only included medical data indicating a patient had CUD. As a result, it was impossible to distinguish between the many ways that cannabis was consumed—for example, by eating or smoking.
“We didn’t have that information within the database that we looked at,” Kokot said. “In terms of actually looking at the type of usage, such as edibles versus inhaled, or the amount per day or amount per week and the number of years.”
There are still outstanding questions about whether smoking cannabis is more hazardous than consuming it. The relationship between cannabis usage and an increased risk of head and neck cancer is likewise unclear, as is the threshold for frequency of use.
Kokot stated, “We can’t make any inferences about those factors.” In order to truly separate out the risk level in various intake kinds and quantities, more data will be required in the following stage of the study.
Inconsistent previous research on cannabis and head & neck cancer
It is acknowledged that the biggest risk factor is tobacco. Reliable Resource for learning about head and neck cancer. Drinking alcohol has been linked to a five-fold increase in risk for several types of head and neck cancer (Trusted Source).
Combining alcohol and tobacco use increases the risk of head and neck cancer by a significant margin.
Meanwhile, Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), clarified that research on the connection between cannabis and head and neck cancer has been inconsistent. The authors of the study also admit this lack of strong evidence.
For example, there was no correlation between cannabis use and the occurrence of head and neck cancer, according to a 2015 study (Trusted Source). An inverse association between the twoTrusted Source was discovered in another 2009 study, suggesting that “moderate” cannabis use was linked to a lower risk of head and neck cancer.
“More research is required before drawing any sort of definitive conclusions, given these historically inconsistent results and the potential issue of confounding,” Armentano told Healthline.
“Those who regularly consume cannabis, such as medical cannabis patients, may want to think about alternate delivery methods that either minimize or completely eliminate the intake of combustive smoke in the interim,” he said.
Sunwoo thought the same thing. “It is important for people to be aware of the limitations of the study,” he stated. However, I also believe that it ought to inspire more research into this, as we simply don’t know.
Understanding cannabis use disorder
It is acknowledged that CUD is a mental illness, Reliable Source But the criteria for fulfilling the diagnosis can be ambiguous, therefore a doctor’s judgment is essentially required when making the diagnosis.
A patient needs to fulfill two of the eleven requirements in order to qualify. Among them are:
consuming a lot of cannabis
desires related to cannabis
signs of withdrawal from cannabis use
enduring urge to quit despite failing attempts
continuous use in spite of interpersonal or social issues
tolerant ness
The diagnosis of CUD does not scientifically identify usage quantity or frequency.
A 3.5–5 times increased incidence of head and neck cancer was linked to cannabis use disorder (CUD), according to recent studies.
There has been evidence of an eight-fold increase in the incidence of CUD for certain site-specific cancers, such as laryngeal carcinoma.
There has been contradictory research in the past regarding the relationship between cannabis consumption and these types of cancer. To ascertain whether consuming cannabis could have an equivalent effect on the risk of head and neck cancer as smoking it, more research is required.
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